


Condemnation

by Diary



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Bechdel Test Fail, Bottle Episode Fic, Canon Disabled Character, Conversations, Gen, Love, Male-Female Friendship, POV Jaime Lannister, POV Male Character, Past Cersei Lannister/Jaime Lannister, Post-Season/Series 04 AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 14:13:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6910513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaime is unhappy with Brienne's reaction to finding out about Cersei betraying him. Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Condemnation

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Game of Thrones.

Feeling raw and irritable at Brienne’s calmness, Jaime notes, “You seem unsurprised to hear of my sister and cousin.”

“I didn’t know, if that’s what you mean, but yes, I’m unsurprised,” she responds.

He- every time he’s tried to get her to actively condemn him and Cersei, she’s invoked the Targaryens and how there were good and bad ones. _May the gods judge you and her_ , she’s said.

“Why aren’t you surprised,” he demands.

She looks over to where Pod is fishing in a swallow lake.

Of course, he bitterly thinks, mustn’t let the innocent squire who bedded three women at once and drove a spear through a man’s head hear. Oh, no.  

“Never mind sacred, plain and simple, your sister made vows of fidelity to a man, and then, she had another man, you, in her bed. If a person refuses to keep their vows to one person, they’re unlikely to keep their vows to anyone. There was a saying a septa once said, ‘If a woman is willing to cuckold her husband, she’ll be willing to cuckold any lover who helped her do so.’”

Taking a deep breath, he replies, “And what of your precious Renly? We both know you know what he did with his wife’s brother.”

“I don’t know if Queen Margaery knew and was unharmed by it or not. King Robert didn’t know, and he certainly would not have been-”

“Ah, there it is. You do condemn us.”

“The gods judge you, her, and I,” is Brienne’s maddeningly placid reply. “You and I are bound together, Ser Jaime.”

To empathise her point, she tilts Oathkeeper so the sun glints off it and hits his eyes.

“I have never betrayed her bed! Do you mean to say, if I married a woman, I would betray hers?”

“No, you just betrayed your kingsguard vows for her bed,” she points out. Sighing, she puts Oathkeeper away. “I don’t know or care if you would betray your wife’s bed or not. Right now, we need to focus on Rickon and bringing as many willing fighters to the wall for Lady Sansa and Lord Snow as possible, not your heartbreak. If you survive and decide to take a wife, I hope those are vows you never break. If you do break them, it won’t have changed the fact you have helped save the realm numerous times over. May the gods take that into consideration when judging it and all the other vows you’ve broken.”

Jaime takes another deep breath. “I much preferred you when you were a moralistic sow who couldn’t shut up about honour. What happened to that Brienne of Tarth, and how did this irritatingly calm one who blathered about the gods come to be?”

Scoffing, she stares at him.

He refuses to let himself break eye contact.

Finally, she says, “You saved me from a bear and gave me Oathkeeper. You think I’ve forgotten about Bran Stark and your cousin? Knowing the true story of the Mad King, I can’t condemn you for that. But I have to live with the fact that someone who would cripple a child and slay his own innocent blood, that that same person is responsible for my life, that that person is going to help, yet again, protect the kingdoms. It was so much easier and less painful when I knew that people who did horrible things deserved only condemnation, for they could never truly have solid good in them.”

“But,” she blinks, “now, I know better. What do you want, Jaime? Sympathy? For me to condemn your sister and leave you unscolded? For me to condemn you both?”

“Well, you lied with your married sister and knowingly brought children others would condemn into this world. I mourn the loss of your daughter, and even, to some extent, your son, and pity your still living child. I pray for his safety and happiness, for he is an innocent. I despise what was done to your sister by the faith militant. But you don’t have my sympathy for the fact that she’s hurt you by betraying you just as she betrayed her husband with you.”

“And right now, I’m more concerned with freeing Rickon Stark, finding Arya and Bran, and in between all this, stopping White Walkers than pointing out your sins. You know them. The gods know them. When the time comes, the gods won’t be bound to you as I am. They won’t owe so much to you. They won’t need you for anything. I owe you my life, and I carry the sword you gave me so that I can attempt to fulfil the vow we both made.”

Before he can formulate a response, she stands and walks over to the lake.

Pod shows off some fish he’s caught, and even from here, Jaime can still make out the fact her eyes are a purer blue than the water she’s standing next to.

For all he’s talked of her ugliness, he knows, if she ever decides to take a husband, only a man who hadn’t seen those eyes go from condemning to grudgingly respectful and to occasionally fond would ever betray her bed and risk those eyes forever condemning him.

But then, he supposes, she’d likely choose someone she’d find worth the effort to condemn.  


End file.
